The last of the confetti from the 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup final is probably still flying around Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey, but for the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which the United States leads in the bid with Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica, preparations are already underway.
The official bid book was submitted unopposed, with 27 proposed cities for FIFA’s consideration, including venues in 11 U.S. host cities that hosted men’s World Cup matches last summer. However, two cities that are not part of this initial list, Chicago and Portland, have now officially submitted their expression of interest to U.S. Soccer, according to The Athletic’s reporting.
Like Chicago, Portland has hosted the FIFA Women’s World Cup before. Now, more than a quarter-century after the tournament first came to Oregon, one of the most ambitious ownership groups in American women’s sports wants to bring it back.
RAJ Sports, the investment group that owns the NWSL’s Portland Thorns and WNBA’s Portland Fire, believes the city’s historic investment in women’s sports makes it a natural World Cup host city for group-stage matches at the 2031 Women’s World Cup, the first women’s tournament set to feature an expanded 48 teams.
“Portland is a great market for women’s sports, it would just make natural sense for us to put our hat in the ring and try to get this Women’s World Cup,” RAJ Sports general manager Mike Whitehead told The Athletic.
For RAJ Sports, led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, along with parents Raj and Marta Bhathal, hosting the world’s biggest women’s soccer tournament would be another opportunity to cement Portland’s reputation as what the ownership group calls the “global epicenter of women’s sports.”
The effort comes during a transformative year for the family. The Bhathals purchased the Thorns in January 2024 for a then-league-record $63 million and were later awarded the WNBA franchise. With the Fire’s inaugural season this year, they doubled down on their bet on women’s sports by opening the $150 million Kaiser Permanente Performance Center, the first state-of-the-art training facility built for its two professional women’s teams.
“Where the rest of the country is today with respect to women’s sports, Portland was 10 years ago,” Whitehead said. “We have embraced women’s sports from day one, from the day the Thorns first set their foot on the pitch, to this record-breaking season with the Portland Fire.”
Whitehead is not wrong.
While they did not ask to host men’s World Cup matches last summer, Portland has a history of hosting the women’s tournament. In 1999, the city hosted four group stage matches at what was then Civic Stadium, now Providence Park, the historic downtown home of the Thorns and Timbers in Major League Soccer.
“Portland was a phenomenal soccer market at that time for women’s soccer before the NWSL even existed,” Jim Etzel, the CEO of Sport Oregon, a non-profit organization that promotes sports in Oregon and is leading the bid for Portland 2031, told The Athletic. “It punches above its weight all the time in interest and support. We were a natural to host for the World Cup in 1999 and sold the place out, even without hosting U.S. matches.”
When the tournament returned to the United States in 2003 on short notice, Portland staged six matches, including both semifinals. One featured the United States’ 3-0 loss to Germany in front of 27,623 spectators.
For Etzel, it wasn’t a surprise Portland became one of the founding teams of the NWSL ahead of the league’s inaugural season.
“Putting a star on the badge that first year, and winning the title three times, Portland showed that women’s professional soccer can be a viable and growing entity and property when executed the right way,” he said.
If selected, Portland would likely host matches at Providence Park, but the stadium presents at least one immediate challenge: its artificial playing surface.
FIFA requires all World Cup stadiums to have natural grass, a rule that was controversially not in place on the women’s side until after the 2015 World Cup. That means Providence Park would need to install a temporary grass field or make more permanent changes before hosting. But RAJ Sports does not control the stadium, which is operated by Peregrine Sports, the ownership group behind the Timbers. Any modifications would require cooperation between the parties.
Still, Whitehead says installing a grass pitch is not keeping him up at night.
“It’s been done,” he said. “It costs money, of course, but it’s not a difficult process to put grass down for events. We’ve been doing it for years.”
Portland’s enthusiasm, however, does not eliminate the financial and logistical challenges of hosting FIFA’s flagship tournament.
Cities involved in the 2026 men’s World Cup have faced significant costs associated with security, public transportation, fan festivals, stadium operations and other infrastructure requirements. Several host committees have also encountered disagreements with FIFA over the allocation of expenses and responsibilities. Those experiences are already shaping conversations about the 2031 tournament.
“It’s not easy, it’s expensive, but nothing worthwhile is ever easy in my mind, and we don’t know if we don’t try,” Whitehead said. “If you don’t put the horse in the race, you have no shot at winning.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Portland Timbers, Portland Thorns, NWSL, Sports Business, Women's Soccer, FIFA Women's World Cup
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